Outsider, a mainstay U.K. commercial production house run by partners/executive producers Robert Campbell and Toby Courlander, has extended its reach stateside with the launch of a Santa Monica-based company under the aegis of executive producer Jonathon Ker. The arrangement puts Ker in a dual role as he continues to serve as exec producer at Tight, a spot shop in which he is partnered with exec producers Don Block and Rich Carter of Santa Monica-headquartered GARTNER. Outsider’s U.S. operation and Tight will be housed in the same Santa Monica complex, but are separate entities.
Several directors on Outsider’s London roster will be available to the U.S. market via Outsider, Santa Monica. They include: James Rouse, David Lodge, Jorn Threlfall, Henry Littlechild, Steve Hudson, Ric Cantor and Chris Mudge.
However, some marquee directors at Outsider in the U.K. will retain their already established affiliations in the American ad market. For example, Rupert Sanders continues to direct for U.S. agencies via Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica. Similarly Acne helms U.S. work through bicoastal RSA USA. And Pedro Romhanyi and the team of Dom & Nic helm stateside market fare via Oil Factory Films, Beverly Hills.
Ker’s purview for Outsider in the U.S. goes beyond that company’s core talent roster. Outsider, Santa Monica, will also handle U.S. representation for The Viral Factory and unit9, two London shops in which Outsider maintains an ownership interest. Unit9 creates online content for advertising, marketing and entertainment, having worked for such clients as FCUK, Miramax, Nintendo, Sony and Virgin. At press time, unit9 had embarked on an undisclosed project for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Meanwhile The Viral Factory, headed by the creative brain trust of Ed Robinson and Matthew Smith, specializes in the creation of viral advertising campaigns for the Web, serving clients that include Bacardi, Ford, MTV, Time Warner and Trojan Condoms. The viral work for Ford, including “Bird” for Ogilvy & Mather, London–which earned silver at the ’04 British Television Advertising Awards–helped establish an industry buzz for director Littlechild, who subsequently came aboard Outsider, London, for commercials. In the darkly humored, offbeat “Bird,” a pigeon swoops down to roost on a Ford Sportka; the car’s hood suddenly pops up, throwing our feathered friend to a surprisingly untimely end. The Ford Sportka is then billed as the Ford Ka’s “evil twin.”
Similarly the humorously risque Trojan viral spots resulted in Outsider bringing director Rouse into the company fold. Rouse made a major directorial splash with the Trojan work, which garnered a Gold Lion at last year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival. The spots depicted carnally athletic, Olympian-caliber performers. For example, in “Vault,” a female gymnast hurdles over a pommel horse and makes a perfect coital landing atop her male partner, to the roaring approval of a stadium crowd. Both gymnasts are stripped from the waist down, though the camera does not reveal all.
Directorial Roster
Rouse first established himself in the industry as a creative at several London ad agencies, including DDB, TBWA, Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper and The Gathering. He also served as creative director at Corsellis Montford Interactive, a London interactive design firm. Rouse transitioned fully into directing in ’02 and last year landed his first stateside affiliation, coming aboard Thomas Winter Cooke (TWC), Santa Monica. He now shifts over from TWC to Outsider, Santa Monica, giving him continuity in representation for both the U.S. and Europe.
Largely on the strength of the Trojan fare, Rouse earned inclusion in the ’04 Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase unveiled at Cannes. Also joining the directorial ranks in the Saatchi Showcase last year was Hudson, whose recent credits include commercials for Carlsberg, Nike, Impulse, Canon and Capital One. Hudson too has an agency creative pedigree, winning a slew of awards at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, from ’94 to ’97 in tandem with his creative partner, Victoria Fallon. In ’97, Hudson moved to Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, where he also started to direct. He came aboard Outsider in ’03.
Director Lodge’s recent work includes a high profile campaign for Virgin Megastores, out of TBWA, London. Horseshoe, his short film based on a poem by Charles Bukowski, won the Palme D’or/Prix de Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in ’98. Lodge has helmed commercials for Toyota, Ikea, British Telecom, Ford, McDonald’s and Vodafone, among others.
Threlfall cut his teeth as a director and DP on short films; he also wrote and helmed a micro-budgeted feature in the U.S. before returning to the U.K. to work in television. Threlfall directed promos and ID pieces for Television X and The Discovery Channel. On behalf of the latter, he made a series of short branding films. He then joined U.K.’s Channel 4 to direct on-air promo campaigns. Threlfall came aboard Outsider in ’02 and has directed spots for Saab, Swiss Telecom and Jaguar, among others. He was recently recruited to direct the films for Channel 4’s upcoming re-branding initiative.
Cantor began directing while working for the BBC’s in-house creative department. He was involved in promo spots for BBC Wild, BBC Knowldedge, the Jools Holland music show and the Commonwealth Games. During the latter part of his BBC stay, Cantor joined Outsider as a director, dovetailing into campaigns for mainstream advertisers. Last year, he wrote and directed his first feature film, Suzie Gold, which starred Summer Phoenix and was released by Pathe Films and Fox. Now back in the commercialmaking arena, he has helmed work for such clients as Woolworths, KFC and Toyota.
And Outsider’s Mudge is an up-and-coming talent whose directorial credits include spots for PlayStation, Nissan and Coca-Cola. He made his first major helming mark with a Virgin Wine campaign from which the spot “Man Talking To Strangers” garnered a best in category honor at the BTA Vision Awards.
Stateside Brand
Executive producer Campbell, who launched Outsider in ’97, has a reputation for helping to develop new directorial talent internationally. However, up until now, when that talent successfully forayed in the American market, it was through U.S. production houses.
Campbell reasoned that the time was right to alter that scenario by establishing Outsider in the U.S. “Rather than putting directors through other people’s companies [in the U.S.],” he said, “I thought it was about time that we did it for our new crop of young people through Outsider in America.”
Campbell said he has entrusted the Outsider brand to Ker because “we are like-minded–Our careers and reputations have paralleled over the years. Jonathon too is best known for discovering and developing directors. That’s what still excites us about the business–being able to build directors’ careers, to watch them progress.”
Ker and Campbell have known each other for some time. In fact, at one point many years back when Campbell was at now defunct Spots Films, he suggested that the company link with Ker’s Palomar Pictures in the U.S. That affiliation, though, never came to fruition. In ’02, Ker divested himself of Palomar, a shop that ended up closing its doors a year later.
During that Spots/Palomar courtship, however, Campbell and Ker had serious talks and got to know each other better. Thus when Ker touched base with Campbell last year, the two viewed their finally coming together at Outsider as an attractive prospect.
Outsider’s U.S. sales force is the same as that for Tight: independent rep Phillip Alden of Claire.Alden Partners, New York, covers the East Coast; indie rep Robert Mueller of David Wagner & Associates, Chicago, handles the Midwest; and staff director of marketing Andrew Hall is responsible for the West Coast.
Additionally, the Tight directing duo The Brothers Strause gains representation in the U.K. via Outsider, London. Tight director Iain Mackenzie continues to be repped in the U.K. through London-based Union.
